Soft drink distributors and others often deliver syrups for soda fountain dispensing to their customers in containers which may have a capacity of ten gallons or less. The containers are used by affixing pressure lines whereby the syrup is dispensed in small quantities and mixed with carbonated water for individual servings. After the syrup has been completely removed from the containers, the pressure lines are disconnected and the empty containers are replaced with full ones. Thereafter, the emptied containers are returned to the packager for cleaning and refilling. However, before the containers can be cleaned, they must be relieved of any internal pressure caused by the gases remaining therein from the dispensing cycle.
The containers can be manually relieved of the internal pressure before disassembly for cleaning purposes but as the demand for such containers grows manual operations become impractical, inefficient and too costly.
With this background in mind, the present invention was developed and one of its objectives is to provide a device for relieving the internal pressure of syrup containers having dispensing valves in a fast, efficient manner.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method for relieving the internal pressure of containers in a positive, inexpensive fashion.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a device having a pressure relief head having a series of resilient, projecting members which will locate and depress dispensing valve stems simultaneously.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a method for relieving or depressurizing containers in rapid style.